Purposeful Pedagogy
Immersive Literature: Using Extended Reality to Teach Close Reading
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Amanda Licastro
In “Virtual Bodies, Virtual Worlds,” an English course cross-listed with the Digital Humanities (DH) minor/graduate certificate, students explore near-future science fiction such as E. M. Forster's “The Machine Stops,” Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Jennifer Haley’s The Nether, and Blake Hausman’s Riding the Trail of Tears. These literary texts raise urgent questions about our current surveillance culture and how we accept ever more intrusive technologies for the promise of personal health and security. Using the work of theorists including Simone Browe, Lisa Nakamura, and Judith Butler as a framework, we consider how speculative fiction can help us critique the current trajectory of emerging technologies, particularly the growing cultural and economic emphasis on virtual and augmented reality (XR) across all industries. Together, we experience a range of XR applications, and assess them in terms of equity, inclusion, and democratization. We then research the implementation of biometric data capture, social media integration, and other pervasive developments in the XR space in order to create collaborative prototypes that expose the benefits and drawbacks of these technologies. Students utilize the makerspace and media lab to experiment with 3D modeling, 360-video capture, and open source software to reimagine concepts from one of the literary works read in the class as an XR application, combining skills cultivated in close reading with digital literacy. According to final reflection essays, students find this critical-creative final project to challenge their assumptions of what humanistic work looks like and what industries they might pursue after graduation.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education and the Impact of Current Events
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tammie Cumming, Isana Leshchinskaya, David Miller
This paper addresses a sensitive and complex issue in a manner that promotes understanding, education, and constructive dialogue within the academic community. We explore the complex dynamics of the Israel-Hamas conflict and its impact on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within higher education institutions. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how geopolitical conflicts, particularly the longstanding and multifaceted conflict between Israel and Hamas, influences the DEI climate at institutions of higher learning in the United States. The focus is on understanding the impact as measured with a DEI assessment at the institutional level and for faculty, staff, and students; and consider strategies to enhance DEI in the context of these challenging global issues. The objectives are to 1. provide a factual, unbiased overview of the Israel-Hamas conflict, including its historical context and current state; 2. examine how this conflict affects students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds within higher education settings; and 3. develop strategies for educators and administrators to address and mitigate the impact of such global issues on campus DEI efforts.
Educating for a New Humanity: Partnering to Incorporate the Holocaust in an Italian Course
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Deborah Margolis, Valentina Denzel
This paper explores the collaboration between faculty member Valentina Denzel and librarian Deborah Margolis to revise the module “Jewish population in Italy” in an upper-level undergraduate Italian course at a large university in the US. This pedagogical partnership aimed to enhance awareness of the diverse Italian population and to increase students’ understanding of the importance of the Humanities to better comprehend not only historical facts but also to foster personal growth and to value human differences, minorities, citizenship and other forms of belonging, human rights, and the dynamics of identity in culture. To this end, students engaged with literary and artistic expressions describing the inauguration of the racial laws by Mussolini in 1938 that denied citizenship rights to the Jewish Italian population. Furthermore, students watched the testimonials by Italian survivors of the Holocaust collected through the initiative of the USC Shoah Foundation in which survivors discussed their lives before and during the inauguration of the racial laws that were followed by Nazi occupation (1943-45) and resulted in the deportation to concentration and death camps. Through this exposure of various literary, artistic, and testimonial contributions, students—largely of Italian heritage—were able to gain a new awareness of the diversity of the Italian population, to revise a stereotypical image of Italy, its history and culture, and to learn more about the oldest Jewish population in Europe. This paper describes the various pedagogical approaches, lessons learned and revisions for future modules of this course.
